Nigeria’s mobile subscription base rises to 157.3 million in October 2024, up from 154.6 million in September. This growth signals a recovery after several months of decline, with MTN and Airtel driving the increase in subscriber numbers.
The recovery follows a comprehensive audit by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the implementation of the National Identification Number (NIN)-SIM linkage exercise. Between March and September 2024, the NIN-SIM process led to the removal of 64.3 million subscriptions from the national database.
With the increase in active subscriptions, Nigeria’s teledensity – the number of active mobile connections per 100 people – also improves, rising to 72.7% in October from 71.46% in September. The NCC bases its teledensity calculation on an estimated population of 216 million.
The latest NCC data reveals that MTN, Nigeria’s largest telecom operator by subscriber count, adds 2.2 million new subscriptions in October. This brings its total active subscriptions to 80.3 million, up from 78 million in September. As a result, MTN now holds 51.09% of the market share.
Airtel, the second-largest operator, gains 697,430 new subscriptions, raising its active base to 54.4 million, from 53.7 million the previous month. Airtel’s market share stands at 31.61%.
Globacom, which experienced a major loss of subscribers due to the NIN-SIM linkage exercise, records a slight drop of 44,635 subscriptions in October. The operator now has 19.1 million active subscriptions, accounting for 12.15% of the market share.
9mobile, which has faced significant subscriber losses in recent years, loses 245,263 subscriptions in October. Its active subscriptions fall to 3.3 million, giving it a market share of 2.15%.
In addition to the NIN-SIM linkage, which disconnected unlinked SIM cards, the NCC also conducted an audit of telecom databases, resulting in a decline in subscriptions from 219 million in March 2024 to 154 million in September 2024.
The audit aimed to eliminate inactive or improperly registered lines. During this process, the NCC discovered that one operator had misclassified about 40 million inactive lines as active. These lines, which had not generated revenue for over 90 days, violated NCC guidelines and distorted the industry’s subscription data.
